1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for the automatic loading and/or unloading of products.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for the automatic loading and/or unloading of products comprising a store having raised and/or superposed shelves and at least one traveling lift provided with at least one mobile bearing top.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is known, the modern automatic stores provided with vertical development superposed parallel tops as well as the stores located in areas raised and/or superposed to other operating zones, or in any case areas where the space available must be rationalized, are provided with at least a traveling lift without any operator, for the automatic loading and/or unloading of products.
The traveling lifts are generally equipped with a product bearing mobile horizontal top, means for positioning the top with respect to the emplacements of the stores, for the loading and/or unloading of the products, and means for the removal and/or the introduction of the products from the emplacements to the top.
The positioning and the loading and unloading operations of the traveling lifts are automatically or semi-automatically adjusted by computerized means or the like, through programs purposing to searching the products through codes, coordinates, and so on.
These technologies for storing and handling the products, though having proved effective for many applications and having revolutionized the old systems, causing the whole to be more rational, rapid, automated, codified and almost error-free, have however some drawbacks that limit their possible further development.
These drawbacks and limitations are mainly due to their constructive and functional complexity and, in particular, to the high cost and the operating rationality of the automatic traveling lifts.
A first drawback lies in that the traveling lifts necessarily comprise gripping means such as, for instance, extensible parts such as pliers, forks, platforms, arms, hooks and the like, which must be capable of seizing in the best way the products, the packs, the packages, the containers or the boxes containing the stored products, to carry out the loading and/or unloading operations from the emplacements of the stores. Obviously, said parts and the related controls are particularly complex and expensive.
Another drawback lies in that, because of the very presence of said gripping means, also the emplacements of the store must be prearranged an sized taking into account the space necessary for their passage and their action. As a result, the emplacements have a size greater than the necessary size, to the detriment of an optimum exploitation of the space available.
Other storing means are also known which have inclined roller tops for storing two or more boxes and for positioning the same, on the arrival, in the first free emplacement. Such systems, though being valid for particular applications, have however the drawback that, in order to send a box located at the rear of the expected working place, it is necessary to cause all the boxes located before it to re-circulate, with a useless, long, expensive and irrational shifting.
The object of this invention is to eliminate said drawback of the known stores for the automatic loading and/unloading.
More particularly, the object of the invention is to provide a store for the automatic loading and/unloading that is simple from the constructive and functional points of view and such as not to require additional spaces for the passage and the action of the sizing means.
In its more general aspect, the present invention allows to achieve these and other aims, that will explained by the following description, by carrying out by gravity the automatic handling of the products, during the loading and/or unloading and the transportation, for instance by using inclined tops.
Therefore, the subject matter of this invention is a system for the automatic loading and/or unloading of products comprising a store provided with at least one shelf, and at least one traveling lift provided with at least one mobile bearing top, wherein both the shelf or shelves of the store and the top or tops of the traveling lift are inclined and provided with at least one mobile transversal blocking means.
The shelves of the store and the mobile tops of the traveling lift are inclined and constituted by a plurality of idle rollers, transversal and parallel to each other.
The mobile transversal blocking means protrudes from said tops and shelves, and is preferably located in correspondence of the lowest side thereof.
In the loading and unloading emplacement, the mobile bearing top of the traveling lift is connected to the corresponding fixed shelf of the store by means of intermediate fixed inclined tops, provided with transversal, parallel and idle rollers.
The store may have a vertical development and be provided with only one vertical traveling lift for the loading and the unloading of the products, or with two vertical traveling lifts located at the opposite sides in correspondence of the loading and unloading positions.
When short loading and unloading times are required, the travelling lifts may comprise couples of mobile bearing tops subjected to one only motorization and with opposite movements, namely an upwards and a downwards movement. In this way, when a loaded top moves upwards to position in correspondence of a fixed shelving emplacement, the other unloaded top moves downwards to be prepared for a subsequent loading. This arrangement allows to halve the operating times.
As an alternative, the store may also be of the rotary carousel type with several superposed tops and the traveling lifts may be transversal and fixed, and one of them at least has inclined tops.
The inclined bearing tops of the vertical or vertical and transversal traveling lifts are coupled to fixed loading and unloading shelves, associated with conveyors or the like, and to the tops of store shelves, which may also be inclined and constituted by idle, transversal and parallel rollers. The fixed shelves of the shelving follow the same inclination as the bearing top of the traveling lift or the loading and unloading paths, in a sequence organized according to the same inclination orientation.
Gravity causes each arriving product or product box to be stored to slide on said rollers and descend along the sequential inclined top or tops, stopping only against the transversal raised blocking means it meets near the lowest unloading edge of each intermediate top or each bearing top.
The transversal blocking means remains in opening position, raised with respect to the top, along the travel of a traveling lift or the like, from its loading emplacement to its arrival or unloading emplacement, or during its stay on the shelves. The blocking means are lowered, and the product laid on them re-starts sliding by gravity on the rollers, coming out of the traveling lift and unloading in the arrival emplacement, which may be either a shelf of an intermediate store or a transferring conveyer or the like.
The bearing tops and the shelves of the products to be handled, as being inclined and consisting of a plurality of idle transversal rollers, ensure the sliding on the same by gravity only, of any mass of product packings; the movements of the products take place only by raising/lowering the transversal blocking means located downstream of the inclined tops, and activated by elementary controls only.
The advantages achieved with the automatic loading and/or unloading store of the present invention arise essentially from the fact that gravity handling is simple, effective, reliable, rapid, very economical and applicable to any traveling lifts or handling means, independently on the type of products and/or packages of products to be handled and on the type of store for which the traveling lifts or said means are intended.